LA City Cracks Down on Flavored Tobacco

A crackdown may be coming on flavored tobacco being sold to young people in Los Angeles. Lolita Lopez reports for the NBC4 News on Wednesday, April 10, 2019. (Published Wednesday, April 10, 2019)

What to Know

The city council is looking for a strategy aimed at restricting the sale of the products to youth.

The push comes as the federal government also is considering a crackdown on flavored e-cigarettes and menthol cigarettes.

An FDA report said more than 2 million high school students were users of e-cigarettes in 2017.

The Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to investigate ways to curb the sale of flavored tobacco products to youth and young adults and study how other cities are tackling the issue.

Councilman Mitch O'Farrell introduced the motion requesting that the City Attorney's Office and the Office of the Chief Legislative Analyst report on a strategy aimed at restricting the sale of the products to youth. The measure was approved on a 12-0 vote.

"It's unconscionable that we would stand idly by while this -- you've heard it referred to as an epidemic -- is increasing," O'Farrell said at a recent City Council committee meeting. "It's just an all new way of creating a new avenue for nicotine addiction to an entirely new generation. That's what's unconscionable. And as long as we have the power to do something about that, and dissuade this type of use, especially when youth are targeted for profit at the expense of their health and well-being, that is not acceptable."

O'Farrell's motion says "the consumption of flavored tobacco products such as cigars, smokeless tobacco and liquid nicotine solution used for vaping have increased in recent years, while menthol cigarettes continue to corner a large part of the Unites States cigarette market," and it cites an FDA report that more than 2 million high school students were users of e-cigarettes in 2017.

O'Farrell's motion comes as the federal government also is considering a crackdown on flavored e-cigarettes and menthol cigarettes, with the Food and Drug Administration recently announcing an effort to focus on the sale of flavored liquids, restrict the sale of flavored cigars and grant the FDA more power to remove other products.

Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer last year announced that his office was seeking injunctions against several electronic cigarette companies allegedly engaged in the illegal sale of vaping products and marketing that promotes youth consumption of tobacco.

Jay Oku, a representative of Five Pawns, a California company that manufactures liquid nicotine, said the products are about helping people quit smoking tobacco.

"The solution is to meet with the specialty vape shops who educate the consumers to break an addiction that they've had for 20, 30, 40 years,'' Oku said at a meeting of the Health, Education, Neighborhoods, Parks, Arts and River Committee last month. "And we do not appeal to children. We do not want children to use this.''